Three Languages

“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
 - Alice In Wonderland, by Louis Carroll


  Pia is three: a blonde haired girl with wide blue eyes. When she speaks to me, I have no idea what she is saying. It's not because she uses baby talk or has mumbled speech, but because she speaks in German.
  "How do you say 'playground' in German?" I asked.
  "Spielplatz," Myriam replied, and I had her write it down so I wouldn't forget.
  Myriam and Daniel attend the same language school as me and are part of the same ministry organization, International Teams. In December I will finish school and head to Ecuador, by way of my family for Christmas, while they will remain in Costa Rica to do mission work there. They needed to go to the ministry center for the afternoon and asked if I could watch their daughters, Pia and baby Melody. When I arrived, the girls were napping, so the parents left quietly and I read a book until they woke up.
  Pia had decided quickly that she likes me, which is good since we speak different languages. Pia understands a good deal of English though, and is also naturally picking up some Spanish. When she woke up we had a snack, played a memory game, and then I asked if she wanted to go to the playground, as her mom had suggested.

  Off we went down the street. Pia held one hand, and I pushed Melody's stroller with the other. A bus rumbled down the neighborhood street past us, as did several motorcycles and other cars, and I was thankful that the park was close by.

  As soon as possible, Pia pulled away from my hand so she could run to the playground. She climbed and slid and swung along with some other Costa Rican children who were playing there. Several woman came over to me to smile down at baby Melody and ask how old she was, and to comment on Pia's blonde hair and blue eyes, which made her clearly stand out from the other children, let alone when she opened her mouth and started speaking German! Suddenly I realized what a strange situation I was in: an American watching two German girls in a park in Costa Rica. I spoke to the other moms in Spanish and called out to Pia in English, who responded in German. It sounded like the beginning of a joke: an American and two German girls were in a park in Costa Rica ...

  Just as I was thinking it was nearly time to go, Pia jumped in a puddle of mud. I removed her little pink Crocs and was stowing them under the stroller when she ran towards a dog which was standing nearby. As she got closer though she became scared and ran back towards me, but now the dog was curious and followed her. I knelt down and held Pia close as I reached out my hand for the dog to sniff. His tale was wagging so I gently petted the dog and told Pia, "It's okay, he's nice, see?" Just then the owner of the dog walked over, a woman around my age. She heard me speaking English to Pia and began to speak in English to me. We talked about how she learned English in college, how I was learning Spanish to go do mission work in Ecuador, and how she has a sister who is doing mission work in the Middle East. It was one of those moments when the great big world felt as though it were shrinking into something in which if you stood on your toes you could see across to the other side. So much seemed to be connected, and I thought about how much we can have in common with strangers, if we just take a moment to talk.

  Pia had found a stump to climb onto, and there she stood, singing in a clear, high voice, as though at any time an audience might gather and listen expectantly. Presently though she turned to smile at me, and when I waved her over she jumped down and ran to me. I picked her up and she looked me right in the eyes with that particular look which children can have that seems to be all innocence and wisdom both at once. Then she reached out and touched my nose. I touched her nose back. It felt as though we had known each other since she was born, instead of it being only the second time I had watched her. As Pia touched my nose, I saw the woman I had been talking to smile. Then we said goodbye, she walking her dog and me carrying barefoot Pia on my hip and pushing the stroller back to their home, where we would wash up and wait for their parents to arrive and tell them, "Yes, we had a good afternoon."